Chapter 11. Answering Objections
Chapter 11.
Answering Objections Obj. 1: I have so much business in the world that I have no time to meditate.
Ans: The world indeed is a great enemy to meditation. It is easy to lose one's purse in a crowd; and in a crowd of worldly employments, it is easy to lose all thoughts of God. So long as the heart is an exchange, I don't expect it to be a temple. But to answer the objection, do you truly have so much business that you have no time for meditation? That is like saying religion is only incidental to you, a thing fit only for your idle hours.
What! No time to meditate! What is the business of your life except meditation? God never sent us into the world to get riches. I don't speak against labour in a calling; but I say this is not the end of our coming here. The errand for which God sent us into the world is salvation. And that we may attain this end, we must use the means: namely, holy meditation. Now, do you have no time to meditate?
That is like a farmer saying that, truly, he has so much business that he has no time to plough or sow! Why, what is his occupation except ploughing and sowing?
What a madness it is to hear Christians say they have no time to meditate! What is the business of their lives except meditation? O take heed, lest by growing rich you grow to be worth nothing in the end. Take heed that God does not sue you into bankruptcy, and disgrace you before men and angels. No time for meditation! You will observe that others in former ages have had just as much business as you, and public affairs to look after; and yet they too were called upon to meditate: "You shall meditate on this book of the law," Jos
1.8. Joshua might have pleaded an excuse: he was a soldier, a commander, and the care of marshalling his army lay chiefly upon him. Yet this must not take him away from religion; Joshua must meditate on the book of God's law. God never intended that the great business of religion should give way to a shop, or to a farm; or that a particular calling would jostle out the general calling.
Obj. 2. But this duty of meditation is hard. To set time apart every day to get the heart into a meditating frame is very difficult. Gerson
76 reports of himself that he was sometimes three or four hours before he could work his heart into a spiritual frame.
Ans: Does this truly hinder? To this I will give a threefold reply.
1. The price that God has set for heaven, is labour, Our salvation cost Christ's blood; it may well cost us our labour. "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence," Mat 11.12. It is like a garrison that holds out, and the duties of religion are to take it by storm. A good
Christian must offer violence to himself; though not to his natural self, yet still to his sinful self. Self is nothing but the flesh, Gal 5.17,77 as Basil, Jerome, Theophylact, and Chrysostom, all expound it. The flesh cries out for ease; it is a libertine; it is loth to take pains, loth to pray, to repent, loth to put its neck under Christ's yoke. Now, a Christian must hate himself;78 and no man has ever yet hated his own flesh, Eph 5.29. Yes, in this sense he must hate his own flesh:
"the lusts of the flesh," Rom 8.13.79 He must offer violence to himself by mortification and meditation. Don't say it is hard to meditate; isn't it harder to lie in hell?
2. We don't argue this way about other things. "Riches are hard to come by, therefore I will sit still and go without them." No, difficulty is the whetstone of industry.80 How men will venture for gold! And will we not spend and be spent for that which is more precious than the gold of Ophir? By meditation we suck out the quintessence of a promise.
3. When we first enter upon meditation it may seem hard; yet once we have entered, it is sweet and pleasant. When first putting on Christ's yoke, it may seem heavy; but once it is on, it becomes easy — it is not a yoke, but a crown. "Lord," says Austin, "the more I meditate on you, the sweeter you are to me." According to holy
David, "My meditation of you will be sweet," Psa 104.34. The poets say the top of Olympus was always quiet and serene. It is hard climbing up the rocky hill of meditation; but once we get to the top, there is a pleasant view, and we sometimes think we are even in heaven. By holy meditation, the soul as it were, breakfasts with God
every morning; and to be sure, his breakfast is better than his dinner.
When a Christian is upon the Mount of Meditation, he is like Peter on the mount when Christ was transfigured. He cries out, "Lord, it is good to be here," Mat 17.4; he is loth to go down the mount again. If you come to him and ask him to exchange it, he would think you ask him to take a loss.81 What hidden manna the soul tastes now! How sweet are the visits of God's Spirit!
When Christ was alone in the wilderness, the angel came to comfort him; when the soul is alone in holy meditations and emotional outpourings, then it is not an angel, but God's own Spirit that comes to comfort him. A Christian who meets with God on the mount, would not exchange his hours of meditation for the most orient 82 pearls or sparkling beauties that the world can afford. No wonder
David spent the whole day in meditation, Psa 119.97. Indeed, as if the day had been too short, he borrows a part of the night too: "When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the night watches," Psa 63.6. When others were sleeping, David was meditating. The one greatly given to meditation will, with Samson, find a honeycomb in this duty. Therefore, don't let the difficulty discourage you. The pleasantness will infinitely countervail the pains.